Zuckerberg says breaking up Facebook “isn’t going to help”

With the look of someone betrayed, Facebook’s CEO has fired back at co-founder Chris Hughes and his brutal NYT op-ed calling for regulators to split up Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. “When I read what he wrote, my main reaction was that what he’s proposing that we do isn’t going to do anything to help solve those issues. So I think that if what you care about is democracy and elections, then you want a company like us to be able to invest billions of dollars per year like we are in building up really advanced tools to fight election interference” Zuckerberg told France Info while in Paris to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron.

Zuckerberg’s argument boils down to the idea that Facebook’s specific problems with privacy, safety, misinformation, and speech won’t be directly addressed by breaking up the company, and instead would actually hinder its efforts to safeguard its social networks. The Facebook family of apps would theoretically have fewer economies of scale when investing in safety technology like artificial intelligence to spot bots spreading voter suppression content.

Facebook’s co-founders (from left): Dustin Moskovitz, Chris Hughes, and Mark Zuckerberg

Hughes claims that “Mark’s power is unprecedented and un-American” and that Facebook’s rampant acquisitions and copying have made it so dominant that it deters competition. The call echoes other early execs like Facebook’s first president Sean Parker and growth chief Chamath Palihapitiya who’ve raised alarms about how the social network they built impacts society.

But Zuckerberg argues that Facebook’s size benefits the public. “Our budget for safety this year is bigger than the whole revenue of our company was when we went public earlier this decade. A lot of that is because we’ve been able to build a successful business that can now support that. You know, we invest more in safety than anyone in social media” Zuckerberg told journalist Laurent Delahousse.

The Facebook CEO’s comments were largely missed by the media, in part because the TV interview was heavily dubbed into French with no transcript. But written out, his quotes offer a window into how deeply Zuckerberg dismisses Hughes’ claims. “Well [Hughes] was talking about a very specific idea of breaking up the company to solve some of the social issues that we face” Zuckerberg says before trying to decouple solutions from anti-trust regulation. “The way that I look at this is, there are real issues. There are real issue around harmful content and finding the right balance between expression and safety, for preventing election interference, on privacy.”

Claiming that a breakup “isn’t going to do anything to help” is a more unequivocal refutation of Hughes’ claim than that of Facebook VP of communications and former UK deputy Prime Minster Nick Clegg. He wrote in his own NYT op-ed today that “what matters is not size but rather the rights and interests of consumers, and our accountability to the governments and legislators who oversee commerce and communications . . . Big in itself isn’t bad. Success should not be penalized.”

Mark Zuckerberg and Chris Hughes

Something certainly must be done to protect consumers. Perhaps that’s a break up of Facebook. At the least, banning it from acquiring more social networks of sufficient scale so it couldn’t snatch another Instagram from its crib would be an expedient and attainable remedy.

But the sharpest point of Hughes’ op-ed was how he identified that users are trapped on Facebook. “Competition alone wouldn’t necessarily spur privacy protection — regulation is required to ensure accountability — but Facebook’s lock on the market guarantees that users can’t protest by moving to alternative platforms” he writes. After Cambridge Analytica “people did not leave the company’s platforms en masse. After all, where would they go?”

That’s why given critics’ call for competition and Zuckerberg’s own support for interoperability, a core tenet of regulation must be making it easier for users to switch from Facebook to another social network. As I’ll explore in an upcoming piece, until users can easily bring their friend connections or ‘social graph’ somewhere else, there’s little to compel Facebook to treat them better.

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5 Free Resume Makers to Make Your CV Stand Out in a Job Hunt

A resume is a prerequisite to any job you look for in the professional world. These free templates and apps will help you build a CV that sets you apart in the rat race.

The purpose of a CV is to stand out from the crowd. A job recruiter is going through thousands of applications at a time, so it’s natural for them to only glance at your CV before shortlisting it. This is why it’s important to rely on resume tools to get your CV read.

The list of websites in this article will help both first-time CV makers as well as experienced professionals to put together a good-looking resume that shines through the mess.

1. MockRabbit’s Resume Maker (Web): Attractive CV Without Any Fuss

MockRabbit helps job hunters prepare for interviews with trial runs. But before you land that interview, you need a good CV. MockRabbit has built an excellent free Resume Maker, based on what thousands of recruiters look for when they scan an application.

The information is basic, with the left column listing your experience and education, while the right column is dedicated to more information about you. This includes your career objective, an accomplishment you are most proud of, your skills and competencies (presented in a five-star rating graph), and other interests. MockRabbit’s output looks professional and gorgeous at the same time, making this one of the best ways to create a good-looking modern CV without any fuss.

The Resume Maker has basic options to change how it looks, but the default is the best. You can choose between three templates, four fonts, and four color schemes. Once you’re happy with your choices, download the PDF.

2. ResumGo (Web): Large Collection of Free Templates

ResumGo hosts a collection of free resume templates that you can download and edit in Microsoft Word, Google Docs, or any other word processor. Unlike several other sites, the download is completely free, and doesn’t require you to sign up or share links.

The website has also made it easy to browse through the repository of templates with simple categories and filters. Categories divide the templates into “simple and professional”, “modern”, and “creative”. Filters include options like the 1-column or 2-column, ID photo or without photo, black-and-white or colors, and so on.

Click the template you like to read a brief description about it, as well as other information like whether it uses any professional (or paid) fonts, the different file formats it comes in, etc. If you like what you see, download it and start editing to make it your own.

3. FlowCV (Web): Step-by-Step Beautiful Resume Builder

FlowCV is one of the easiest apps to build a beautiful resume without any design skills. Register and start making your CV, which is divided into three parts: content, design, and check.

The content category is where you add the elements you want your resume to have. This includes a variety of sections, such as education, professional experience, skills, languages, certificates, awards, references, and so on. Each section has predetermined fields to fill out, so you don’t need to think about what you should and shouldn’t put into the resume.

Once that’s done, move to the design category, where you get to customize how your CV will look. This is where FlowCV really shines. Since each content section is a separate element, it’s easy to change the look and feel of the resume without constantly editing it. You can change columns, colors, and pretty much anything to make it look just the way you want it to.

Finally, before you download the finished resume, do yourself a favor and get it checked. FlowCV generates a private link that you can share with friends so they can look at what you have put together and point out improvements or silly mistakes. It saves a ton of time before you download the PDF.

4. Serious Simplicity’s CV (Web): For Experienced Professionals

If you can build a great resume on a single page, it is more likely that you will impress a recruiter. A few years ago, entrepreneur and designer Richard Muscat shared a free template for a one-page resume that went viral, and he has recently updated it for 2019.

This CV is probably more useful for someone who has already spent a few years working, and not for a fresh recruit. The focus is on your previous experience. Muscat recommends describing your achievements at each job in one or two lines. “The bigger your accomplishments, the quicker you should be able to explain them,” he says.

Apart from previous work experience, there is a brief about your education, and then your contact information. There is nothing more to the Serious Simplicity CV. It has large fonts, and looks spacious and clean, which is what makes it stand out for a recruiter from the usual herd of resumes with information overload.

Download: Serious Simplicity’s One-Page CV For 2019 (Free)

5. I Need A Resume 2.0 (Web): Better Than Before

We’ve talked about I Need A Resume in previous posts, but the updated version deserves to be mentioned again. It’s smoother and faster, and perhaps easier than ever before to create a resume.

The updated webapp, which doesn’t require you to register to use, takes you through each step of creating a classy CV. First, fill out a cover letter. Then go through the steps of adding information about personal details, a professional summary, experiences, projects, education, and skills.

When you reach Finish Up, you’ll get to choose between four different CV templates, each with its own style. You can also adjust line height, font size, and whether you want text or icons. Once you’re done, download the free PDF.

What Not to Put on Your Resume

When you’re making a resume, it’s tempting to add all your accomplishments as well as other personal and professional data. But this can lead to an information overload for a recruiter. If they don’t quickly spot what they’re looking for, they will chuck your CV and move on to a new one.

While you should know what to include, it’s as important to know things not to put in your resume. This is how you will avoid clutter and unnecessary distractions, raising your chances of being shortlisted for the next round.

Read the full article: 5 Free Resume Makers to Make Your CV Stand Out in a Job Hunt

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India’s most popular services are becoming super apps

Truecaller, an app that helps users screen strangers and robocallers, will soon allow users in India, its largest market, to borrow up to a few hundred dollars in the nation.

The crediting option will be the fourth feature the nine-year-old app adds to its service in the last two years. So far it has added to the service the ability to text, record phone calls and mobile payment features, some of which are only available to users in India. Of the 140 million daily active users of Truecaller, 100 million live in India.

The story of the ever-growing ambition of Truecaller illustrates an interesting phase in India’s internet market that is seeing a number of companies mold their single-functioning app into multi-functioning so-called super apps.

Inspired by China

This may sound familiar. Truecaller and others are trying to replicate Tencent’s playbook. The Chinese tech giant’s WeChat, an app that began life as a messaging service, has become a one-stop solution for a range of features — gaming, payments, social commerce and publishing platform — in recent years.

WeChat has become such a dominant player in the Chinese internet ecosystem that it is effectively serving as an operating system and getting away with it. The service maintains its own app store that hosts mini apps and lets users tip authors. This has put it at odds with Apple, though the iPhone-maker has little choice but to make peace with it.

For all its dominance in China, WeChat has struggled to gain traction in India and elsewhere. But its model today is prominently on display in other markets. Grab and Go-Jek in Southeast Asian markets are best known for their ride-hailing services, but have begun to offer a range of other features, including food delivery, entertainment, digital payments, financial services and healthcare.

The proliferation of low-cost smartphones and mobile data in India, thanks in part to Google and Facebook, has helped tens of millions of Indians come online in recent years, with mobile the dominant platform. The number of internet users has already exceeded 500 million in India, up from some 350 million in mid-2015. According to some estimates, India may have north of 625 million users by year-end.

This has fueled the global image of India, which is both the fastest growing internet and smartphone market. Naturally, local apps in India, and those from international firms that operate here, are beginning to replicate WeChat’s model.

Founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Paytm Vijay Shekhar Sharma speaks during the launch of Paytm payments Bank at a function in New Delhi on November 28, 2017 (AFP PHOTO / SAJJAD HUSSAIN)

Leading that pack is Paytm, the popular homegrown mobile wallet service that’s valued at $18 billion and has been heavily backed by Alibaba, the e-commerce giant that rivals Tencent and crucially missed the mobile messaging wave in China.

Commanding attention

In recent years, the Paytm app has taken a leaf from China with additions that include the ability to text merchants; book movie, flight and train tickets; and buy shoes, books and just about anything from its e-commerce arm Paytm Mall. It also has added a number of mini games to the app. The company said earlier this month that more than 30 million users are engaging with its games.

Why bother with diversifying your app’s offering? Well, for Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder and CEO of Paytm, the question is why shouldn’t you? If your app serves a certain number of transactions (or engagements) in a day, you have a good shot at disrupting many businesses that generate fewer transactions, he told TechCrunch in an interview.

At the end of the day, companies want to garner as much attention of a user as they can, said Jayanth Kolla, founder and partner of research and advisory firm Convergence Catalyst.

“This is similar to how cable networks such as Fox and Star have built various channels with a wide range of programming to create enough hooks for users to stick around,” Kolla said.

“The agenda for these apps is to hold people’s attention and monopolize a user’s activities on their mobile devices,” he added, explaining that higher engagement in an app translates to higher revenue from advertising.

Paytm’s Sharma agrees. “Payment is the mote. You can offer a range of things including content, entertainment, lifestyle, commerce and financial services around it,” he told TechCrunch. “Now that’s a business model… payment itself can’t make you money.”

Big companies follow suit

Other businesses have taken note. Flipkart-owned payment app PhonePe, which claims to have 150 million active users, today hosts a number of mini apps. Some of those include services for ride-hailing service Ola, hotel booking service Oyo and travel booking service MakeMyTrip.

Paytm (the first two images from left) and PhonePe offer a range of services that are integrated into their payments apps

What works for PhonePe is that its core business — payments — has amassed enough users, Himanshu Gupta, former associate director of marketing and growth for WeChat in India, told TechCrunch. He added that unlike e-commerce giant Snapdeal, which attempted to offer similar offerings back in the day, PhonePe has tighter integration with other services, and is built using modern architecture that gives users almost native app experiences inside mini apps.

When you talk about strategy for Flipkart, the homegrown e-commerce giant acquired by Walmart last year for a cool $16 billion, chances are arch rival Amazon is also hatching similar plans, and that’s indeed the case for super apps.

In India, Amazon offers its customers a range of payment features such as the ability to pay phone bills and cable subscription through its Amazon Pay service. The company last year acquired Indian startup Tapzo, an app that offers integration with popular services such as Uber, Ola, Swiggy and Zomato, to boost Pay’s business in the nation.

Another U.S. giant, Microsoft, is also aboard the super train. The Redmond-based company has added a slew of new features to SMS Organizer, an app born out of its Microsoft Garage initiative in India. What began as a texting app that can screen spam messages and help users keep track of important SMSs recently partnered with education board CBSE in India to deliver exam results of 10th and 12th grade students.

This year, the SMS Organizer app added an option to track live train schedules through a partnership with Indian Railways, and there’s support for speech-to-text. It also offers personalized discount coupons from a range of companies, giving users an incentive to check the app more often.

Like in other markets, Google and Facebook hold a dominant position in India. More than 95% of smartphones sold in India run the Android operating system. There is no viable local — or otherwise — alternative to Search, Gmail and YouTube, which counts India as its fastest growing market. But Google hasn’t necessarily made any push to significantly expand the scope of any of its offerings in India.

India is the biggest market for WhatsApp, and Facebook’s marquee app too has more than 250 million users in the nation. WhatsApp launched a pilot payments program in India in early 2018, but is yet to get clearance from the government for a nationwide rollout. (It isn’t happening for at least another two months, a person familiar with the matter said.) In the meanwhile, Facebook appears to be hatching a WeChatization of Messenger, albeit that app is not so big in India.

Ride-hailing service Ola too, like Grab and Go-Jek, plans to add financial services such as credit to the platform this year, a source familiar with the company’s plans told TechCrunch.

“We have an abundance of data about our users. We know how much money they spend on rides, how often they frequent the city and how often they order from restaurants. It makes perfect sense to give them these valued-added features,” the person said. Ola has already branched out of transport after it acquired food delivery startup Foodpanda in late 2017, but it hasn’t yet made major waves in financial services despite giving its Ola Money service its own dedicated app.

The company positioned Ola Money as a super app, expanded its features through acquisition and tie ups with other players and offered discounts and cashbacks. But it remains behind Paytm, PhonePe and Google Pay, all of which are also offering discounts to customers.

Integrated entertainment

Super apps indeed come in all shapes and sizes, beyond core services like payment and transportation — the strategy is showing up in apps and services that entertain India’s internet population.

MX Player, a video playback app with more than 175 million users in India that was acquired by Times Internet for some $140 million last year, has big ambitions. Last year, it introduced a video streaming service to bolster its app to grow beyond merely being a repository. It has already commissioned the production of several original shows.

In recent months, it has also integrated Gaana, the largest local music streaming app that is also owned by Times Internet. Now its parent company, which rivals Google and Facebook on some fronts, is planning to add mini games to MX Player, a person familiar with the matter said, to give it additional reach and appeal.

Some of these apps, especially those that have amassed tens of millions of users, have a real shot at diversifying their offerings, analyst Kolla said. There is a bar of entry, though. A huge user base that engages with a product on a daily basis is a must for any company if it is to explore chasing the super app status, he added.

Indeed, there are examples of companies that had the vision to see the benefits of super apps but simply couldn’t muster the requisite user base. As mentioned, Snapdeal tried and failed at expanding its app’s offerings. Messaging service Hike, which was valued at more than $1 billion two years ago and includes WeChat parent Tencent among its investors, added games and other features to its app, but ultimately saw poor engagement. Its new strategy is the reverse: to break its app into multiple pieces.

“In 2019, we continue to double down on both social and content but we’re going to do it with an evolved approach. We’re going to do it across multiple apps. That means, in 2019 we’re going to go from building a super app that encompasses everything, to Multiple Apps solving one thing really well. Yes, we’re unbundling Hike,” Kavin Mittal, founder and CEO of Hike, wrote in an update published earlier this year.

And Reliance Jio, of course

For the rest, the race is still on, but there are big horses waiting to enter to add further competition.

Reliance Jio, a subsidiary of conglomerate Reliance Industry that is owned by India’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani, is planning to introduce a super app that will host more than 100 features, according to a person familiar with the matter. Local media first reported the development.

It will be fascinating to see how that works out. Reliance Jio, which almost single-handedly disrupted the telecom industry in India with its low-cost data plans and free voice calls, has amassed tens of millions of users on the bouquet of apps that it offers at no additional cost to Jio subscribers.

Beyond that diverse selection of homespun apps, Reliance has also taken an M&A-based approach to assemble the pieces of its super app strategy.

It bought music streaming service Saavn last year and quickly integrated it with its own music app JioMusic. Last month, it acquired Haptik, a startup that develops “conversational” platforms and virtual assistants, in a deal worth more than $100 million. It already has the user bases required. JioTV, an app that offers access to over 500 TV channels; and JioNews, an app that additionally offers hundreds of magazines and newspapers, routinely appear among the top apps in Google Play Store.

India’s super app revolution is in its early days, but the trend is surely one to keep an eye on as the country moves into its next chapter of internet usage.

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Facebook sues analytics firm Rankwave over data misuse

Facebook might have another Cambridge Analytica on its hands. In a late Friday news dump, Facebook revealed that today it filed a lawsuit alleging South Korean analytics firm Rankwave abused its developer platform’s data, and has refused to cooperate with a mandatory compliance audit and request to delete the data.

Facebook’s lawsuit centers around Rankwave offering to help businesses build a Facebook authorization step into their apps so they can pass all the user data to Rankwave, which then analyzes biographic and behavioral traits to supply user contact info and ad targeting assistance to the business. Rankwave also apparently misused data sucked in by its own consumer app for checking your social media “influencer score”. That app could pull data about your Facebook activity such as location checkins, determine that you’ve checked into a baseball stadium, and then Rankwave could help its clients target you with ads for baseball tickets.

The use of a seemingly fun app to slurp up user data and repurpose it for other business goals is strikingly similar to how Cambridge Analytica’s personality quiz app tempted millions of users to provide data about themselves and their friends.

Rankwave touts its Facebook data usage in this 2014 pitch deck

TechCrunch has attained a copy of the lawsuit that alleges that Rankwave misused Facebook data outside of the apps where it was collected, purposefully delayed responding to a cease-and-desist order, claimed it didn’t violate Facebook policy, lied about not using its apps since 2018 when they were accessed in April 2019, and then refused to comply with a mandatory audit of its data practices. Facebook Platform data is not supposed to be repurposed for other business goals, only for the developer to improve their app’s user experience.

“By filing the lawsuit, we are sending a message to developers that Facebook is serious about enforcing our policies, including requiring developers to cooperate with us during an investigation” Facebook’s director of platform enforcement and litigation Jessica Romero wrote. Facebook tells TechCrunch that “To date Rankwave has not participated in our investigation and we are trying to get more info from them to determine if there was any misuse of Pages data.” We’ve reached out to Rankwave for its response.

Facebook’s lawsuit details that “Rankwave used the Facebook data associated with Rankwave’s apps to create and sell advertising and marketing analytics and models — which violated Facebook’s policies and terms” and that it “failed to comply with Facebook’s requests for proof of Rankwave’s compliance with Facebook policies, including an audit.”

More specifically, Facebook cites that its “Platform Policies largely restrict Developers from using Facebook data outside of the environment of the app, for any purpose other than enhancing the app users’ experience on the app.” But Rankwave allegedly used Facebook data outside those apps.

Rankwave describes how it extracts contact info and ad targeting data from Facebook user data in this 2014 presentation

 

Facebook’s suit claims that “Rankwave’s B2B apps were installed and used by businesses to track and analyze activity on their Facebook Pages . . . Rankwave operated a consumer app called the ‘Rankwave App.’ This consumer app was designed to measure the app user’s popularity on Facebook by analyzing the level of interaction that other users had with the app user’s Facebook posts. On its website, Rankwave claimed that this app calculated a user’s ‘Social influence score’ by ‘evaluating your social activities’ and receiving ‘responses from your friends.'”

Facebook is seeking monetary damages plus injunctive relief restraining Rankwave from accessing the Facebook Platform, requiring it to comply with Facebook’s audit, requiring that it delete all Facebook data.

TechCrunch has found that Rankwave still offers an Android app that asks for you to login with Facebook so it can assess the popularity of your posts and give you a “Social Influencer Score”. Until 2015 when Facebook tightened its policies, this kind of app could ingest not only a user’s own data but that about their Facebook friends. As with Cambridge Analytica, this likely massively compounded Rankwave’s total data access.

You can learn more about Rankwave’s analytics practices from this 2014 presentation.

RANKWAVE Connect Introduction Eng. from Jason Kim

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Facebook sues analytics firm Rankwave over data misuse

Facebook might have another Cambridge Analytica on its hands. In a late Friday news dump, Facebook revealed that today it filed a lawsuit alleging South Korean analytics firm Rankwave abused its developer platform, and has refused to cooperate with a mandatory compliance check regarding how it used Facebook data.

TechCrunch has attained a copy of the lawsuit that alleges that Rankwave misused Facebook data outside of the apps where it was collected, purposefully delayed responding to a cease-and-desist order, claimed it didn’t violate Facebook policy, lied about not using its apps since 2018 when they were accessed in April 2019, and then refused to comply with a mandatory audit of its data practices.

“By filing the lawsuit, we are sending a message to developers that Facebook is serious about enforcing our policies, including requiring developers to cooperate with us during an investigation” Facebook’s director of platform enforcement and litigation Jessica Romero wrote. Facebook tells TechCrunch that “To date Rankwave has not participated in our investigation and we are trying to get more info from them to determine if there was any misuse of Pages data.”

 

Facebook explains that “Rankwave used the Facebook data associated with Rankwave’s apps to create and sell advertising and marketing analytics and models — which violated Facebook’s policies and terms”  and that it “failed to comply with Facebook’s requests for proof of Rankwave’s compliance with Facebook policies, including an audit.”

More specifically, Facebook cites that its “Platform Policies largely restrict Developers from using Facebook data outside of the environment of the app, for any purpose other than enhancing the app users’ experience on the app.” But Rankwave used Facebook data outside those apps.

Facebook alleges that “Rankwave’s B2B apps were installed and used by businesses to track and analyze activity on their Facebook Pages . . . Rankwave operated a consumer app called the “Rankwave App.” This consumer app was designed to measure the app user’s popularity on Facebook by analyzing the level of interaction that other users had with the app user’s Facebook posts. On its website, Rankwave claimed that this app calculated a user’s ‘Social influence score’ by ‘evaluating your social activities’ and receiving ‘responses from your friends.'”

Facebook is seeking monetary damages plus injunctive relief restraining Rankwave from accessing the Facebook Platform, requiring it to comply with Facebook’s audit, requiring that it delete all Facebook data.

You can learn more about Rankwave’s analytics practices from this 2014 presentation.

RANKWAVE Connect Introduction Eng. from Jason Kim

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Facebook Launches a New Way to Say Happy Birthday

Facebook is a good way of keeping track of birthdays. This is because most people sign up using their real birthdate, and then opt to share it on Facebook. So you can simply rely on Facebook notifications rather than referring to a calendar.

Until now, your choices of birthday greeting have been limited to posting on someone’s wall. Maybe with a couple of emojis or a GIF to spice things up a little. However, Facebook is now offering a new way for you to wish someone a Happy Birthday.

How to Send Birthday Wishes Using Facebook Stories

Facebook’s new method for wishing someone a Happy Birthday utilizes Facebook Stories. Which are the ephemeral posts which sit atop your News Feed. Facebook Stories usually comprise of a photo or video, making them a more visual way of using Facebook.

From now on, when one of your close friends (as identified by Facebook) has a birthday, you’ll be invited to wish them a Happy Birthday. If you tap on the notification you’ll be invited to take a photo or short video and customize it to your heart’s content.

Facebook Stories Sweetens Birthdays with a New Feature https://t.co/bFMMcHJibx

— Facebook Newsroom (@fbnewsroom) May 9, 2019

There are lots of ways to customize Birthday Stories, so you can personalize yours to the recipient’s tastes. You can even add a music sticker to add a soundtrack. And if you’re struggling for inspiration, you can use one of Facebook’s digital birthday cards.

You could technically already use Facebook Stories to wish someone a Happy Birthday. However, Facebook has now formalized the procedure, adding birthday notifications to the Stories tray, ways to customize your Birthday Stories, and a selection of birthday cards.

You Could Send a Happy Birthday Meme Instead

In the post on the Facebook Newsroom announcing Birthday Stories, Facebook explains why it’s introducing the feature. Apparently, 500 million people now use Facebook Stories every day, so it makes sense to help people use Stories in more imaginative ways.

If Facebook’s Birthday Stories don’t quite hit the spot, you should check out the best Happy Birthday memes you can send instead. Just be aware that the reaction you get from these will depend on whether or not the recipient has a sense of humor.

Read the full article: Facebook Launches a New Way to Say Happy Birthday

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How to Bypass Blocked Sites and Internet Restrictions

It doesn’t matter where in the world you live; there are times when you’re going to come across blocked sites and a restricted internet.

If you come across an internet block, don’t panic. Keep reading to find out more how to bypass barred sites and internet restrictions.

Why Do Blocked Sites Exist?

The possible reasons for the blocks are numerous.

Firstly, lots of services use geo-blocking tools to restrict access to their content in certain countries. The issue is perhaps most commonly associated with Netflix’s catalog. However, it can also apply to videos on social media (such as sports clips), news articles, and even entire services which are not available outside of their country of origin (like Hulu).

Secondly, governments often block access to sites to suit their agenda. The Twitter block in China is perhaps the most famous example, but in recent years we’ve also seen Turkey block access to social media in an attempt to quell protests in 2016 and Sri Lanka stop access to Facebook in the aftermath of the April 2019 terrorist attacks, supposedly to prevent the spread of fake news.

Thirdly, employers often block sites on their internal networks. Heaven forbid that you waste a few minutes of their time checking Facebook…

Lastly, some countries have odd laws that can restrict access to certain types of material. The UK’s controversial porn ban, which requires users to verify their age, and Germany’s crusade against YouTube are two of the most notable cases.

6 Ways to Bypass Blocked Sites and Restrictions

1. Use a VPN

The most popular way of accessing blocked internet sites is to use a high-quality paid VPN.

VPNs have many benefits, but from a blocked sites standpoint, it’s the technology’s ability to provide you with an IP address in another country that’s the most important. The foreign IP address makes it appear as though you are based in a different location. Thus, you won’t trigger a site’s geo-blocks and can circumnavigate restrictions.

Some services theoretically block access from VPN IP addresses. In practice, this has resulted in a massive game of cat and mouse, in which the VPN providers are generally victorious.

VPNs are incredibly easy to use: download the app onto your phone or computer, enter your login credentials, and choose the network that you want to connect to.

Need a VPN? You can score discounted plans with CyberGhost and ExpressVPN if you sign up using these links. Both are reputable, performant, and mindful of your privacy.

2. Use a Smart DNS

The recent clampdown on VPNs by services like Netflix and BBC iPlayer has resulted in a growth of smart DNS providers.

Smart DNS services have some pros and cons when considered in contrast to VPNs.

One of the most significant advantages is internet speed. Unlike VPNs, which route all your web traffic through a different network, smart DNS providers only need to reroute information about your location. This process results in a faster browsing experience.

On the downside, DNS services do not offer any of the same privacy benefits as VPNs. They do not encrypt your traffic, nor do they change your IP. If authorities in your location are likely to prosecute based on the sites you visit, a smart DNS provider is not right for you.

One of the best smart DNS providers is Getflix.

3. Use a Free Proxy

If you need to quickly access a blocked website on a one-time basis, a free proxy might be the way to go.

A proxy will hide your IP address, thus helping to disguise your location. It will not, however, encrypt your traffic. The lack of encryption means proxies are not as secure as VPNs; they are an excellent option to get around blocks on work and school networks but are not suitable for browsing which requires anonymity.

Proxies are typically much slower than VPNs. You’ll also find they often have issues with page formatting and images. Both of these problems preclude them from being a reliable long-term solution.

We’ve written about some of the best proxies for geo-blocked content if you’d like to learn more.

4. Use Google Translate

Google Translate is a less technical way of bypassing content restrictions. It doesn’t require any third-party apps or downloads, and there’s no need to worry about IP addresses and DNS servers.

Just head to the Google Translate homepage, enter the blocked site’s URL in the box on the left, and click on the hyperlink in the right-hand box.

The trick will not work if you try and translate English > English but will work if you set the source language as something different, even if the site is actually in English.

For example, in the image above, you can see I set the source to Spanish on the BBC homepage. As long as the output language is set to English, it will work.

Once again, it goes without saying that using Google Translate to bypass internet blocks offers no privacy protections.

5. Use a Site’s IP Address

When you think of web addresses, you probably think of the domain name (e.g., www.makeuseof.com) that you type into your browser’s address bar.

In practice, the domain name is like a veneer for the IP address. It’s the IP address that points at a server and directs your traffic. DNS servers are responsible for converting domain names into their associated IP addresses.

However, if you know a site’s IP address, you can enter it directly into your browser, and you will still end up viewing the site.

Because many networks only block domain name URLs and not their underlying IP addresses, this trick is often a great way to circumvent internet restrictions.

The same principle applies to short URLs. It’s unlikely that a small employer or school has blocked all the short URLs that point to a site. You’ll often enjoy some success if you try to use them.

You can find the IP address of a site by opening Command Prompt as an admin, they typing tracert followed by the domain name, for example, tracert bbc.com.

6. Use Tor

When you use the Tor network to browse the web, your traffic is taken on a long journey through thousands of nodes all around the world.

This process makes it almost impossible for a regular website to know where the request originated, so it’s unlikely to get caught in any blocking filters.

Be aware that Tor and the dark web is not completely anonymous. Government authorities can, and do, monitor persons of interest on the network.

Learn More About Using VPNs

Our preferred method for accessing blocked sites and bypassing internet restrictions on a regular basis is to use a VPN.

If you would like to learn more about VPNs, you should read our articles on how to set up a VPN anywhere and how to use a VPN on Android.

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How to Use Clonezilla to Clone Your Windows Hard Drive

When you buy a new computer, you have to move your old files to your new system. Copying folder after folder, file after file is tedious. Thankfully, you can use Clonezilla to clone your entire drive to a new drive. Drive cloning with Clonezilla is fast, simple, and best of all, completely free.

Here’s how you clone your Windows 10 drive with Clonezilla and a USB flash drive.

What Is Clonezilla?

Clonezilla is a free and open source disk partition and image cloning program. You can use Clonezilla for system backups, full drive clones, system deployments, and more. Furthermore, it supports an enormous range of file systems, as well as multiple boot loaders, encryption, and more.

Please note that to clone your Windows 10 drive, your second drive must have an equal or larger capacity to your current storage. For instance, if you want to clone a drive that is using 60 GB storage, the recipient drive must also have at least 60 GB available for a complete clone.

Step 1: Download Clonezilla

First, you need a copy of Clonezilla.

1. Head to the Clonezilla download page. Switch Select file type to ISO.
2. Hit Download.
3. Install it as you would any other program.

Step 2: Create a Bootable USB Drive With Rufus

To create your bootable Clonezilla USB flash drive, you need a 1 GB USB flash drive (or larger). You also need handy little bootable USB flash drive tool, Rufus. (Here are some other tools you can use to make a bootable USB flash drive.)

Please note that creating the Clonezilla bootable USB flash drive will completely wipe any existing data on your drive.

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Head to the Rufus homepage. Download and install the latest version.
2. After installation, open Rufus. Make sure to insert your USB flash drive.
3. Select your USB flash drive under Device.
4. Under Boot selection, press SELECT. Browse to your Clonezilla ISO download location and hit Open. Rufus will automatically input the correct options to create a bootable USB flash drive. Change the Volume Label to something more memorable if you want.
5. When ready, press START.
6. Rufus will detect an “ISOHybrid” image. Continue to Write in ISO Image mode.

Clonezilla is a small ISO. Therefore, the bootable USB flash drive creation process doesn’t take long.

At this point, you should connect your second hard drive to your system and make sure it is working with your system. You don’t want to get into the Clonezilla process and realize it isn’t functioning.

Step 3: Reboot Into Boot Selection Mode

Now you need to reboot your system into boot selection mode. The easiest way to do this is to restart your system, then press the boot menu selection button for your hardware type.

Access Boot Selection Menu Using a Function Key

Unsure which button to press? You can find your hardware brand on this boot menu master list. Looking for BIOS settings? Check out our guide on how to enter your system BIOS, complete with hardware specific key combinations.

After you reboot your system, tap the specific key. For instance, on my Gigabyte motherboard, I tap F12 after rebooting to access the boot selection menu.

Once you are in the menu, you can scroll down and select your Clonezilla bootable USB flash drive.

Access Boot Selection Menu via Windows 10 Advanced Startup

Some UEFI systems will not let you access the boot selection manually, to keep you secure. Instead, you can access your boot selection menu from your UEFI firmware menu.

Press and hold the Shift key and press Restart in your Start Menu. This combination opens the Advanced Startup Menu. From here, you can select Troubleshoot > Advanced Options > UEFI Firmware Settings option.

Once your UEFI firmware menu opens, you need to find your boot options. For example, these are the boot menu options in my UEFI firmware:

From here, I can change the boot order so that my motherboard boots the Clonezilla USB flash drive before my regular Windows 10 installation.

Step 4: Set Up Clonezilla

Once Clonezilla boots, you have a few options. Select Clonezilla Live (Default Settings, VGA 800×600). Now, wait for the Clonezilla live environment to load. You will have to choose your keyboard language and layout. When you reach the Start Clonezilla screen, select Start Clonezilla.

You now have the Clonezilla options screen. For the moment, you only need to know about two of the six options:

• device-image: Make a copy of the device (e.g. your hard drive) to a disk image.
• device-device: Work directly with your device (e.g. your hard drive) to make a copy direct to another form of storage.

The first option helps you create a disk image of the device storage you are currently working with. The second option helps you make a clone of the device storage you are currently working with, copying it to another form of storage directly.

As we are cloning a drive, choose the second option, device-device, followed by Beginner Mode. The other options allow you to define advanced options. You do not need these options at the current time.

You now have two more options to choose from:

• disk to local disk: Clone your current disk to another local disk (e.g. the second hard drive).
• part to local part: Clone a disk partition to another local disk partition (a process that also uses your second hard drive).

Again, as you cloning your entire drive, choose the first option. The second option, to clone a partition, allows you to make a copy of a portion of your device storage.

Step 5: Clone Your Drive to a Local Drive

Now you input which drives Clonezilla should clone.

Clonezilla is a Linux-based utility, so the drives use the Linux naming convention. That means your primary partition—that’s your main storage—will use the name “sda,” your second drive is “sdb,” and so on. You can also cross-reference the drives using their size.

On the second screen, choose the storage you want to copy to. Remember, the local disk you are copying must have a smaller size than the second drive.

Now, choose what you want Clonezilla to do when the cloning process completes. You have three options:

• choose: Keep Clonezilla running after the process completes.
• reboot: Reboot Clonezilla once the process completes.
• poweroff: Shut down Clonezilla once the process completes.

The final selection is to copy the local disk’s bootloader. If you are making a copy of your Windows 10 drive and you want it to boot, type Y, and press Enter.

Wondering how you restore your drive once you clone it? Follow the steps in the tutorial, but copy the cloned drive to your target drive, making sure to copy the bootloader once more.

Clone Windows 10 Using Clonezilla: Success!

You can now clone your Windows 10 drive using Clonezilla. You can also restore that drive clone using the same process. The beauty of using Clonezilla is that you take a clone of the entire drive, leaving nothing behind. So long as you have enough space on your drive, Clonezilla will always do the job.

There are numerous Windows 10 backup methods. Check out our ultimate guide to Windows 10 data backups for more excellent backup options.

Image Credit: ollikainen/Depositphotos

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A brief history of Uber’s bumpy road to an IPO

It’s been nine years since UberCab made its first appearance on the WordPress pages of this website. In the ensuing years, the startup has grown from an upstart looking to upend the taxi cab cartels, to a juggernaut that has its hands in every form of transportation and logistics service it can think of.

In the process, Uber has done some things that might give (and in fact has given) some shareholders pause.

Uber achieved many firsts, let's look back:

1. broke a ton of laws
2. killed someone with an AI-powered robot
3. executive threatened reporters
4. can only realize its current valuation by firing all its drivers, replacing them with computers

Happy Uber IPO day!!

— Christopher Mims (@mims) May 10, 2019

From its first pitch deck to this historic public offering, TechCrunch has covered the über startup that has defined the post-financial-crisis era of consumer venture investing.

Here are some of the things that shouldn’t get swept into the dustbin of Uber’s history as the company makes its debut as a public company.

• In 2014 Uber used a tool called “God View” to track the movements of passengers and shared those details publicly.At the time, the company was worth a cool $18.2 billion, and was already on the road to success (an almost pre-ordained journey given the company’s investors and capitalization), but even then, it could not get out of the way of its darker impulses.

Uber’s God View Shows The Privacy Wars Are Revving Up

• A former executive of the company, Emil Michael, suggested that Uber should investigate journalists who were critical of the company and its business practices (including PandoDaily editor Sarah Lacy).

Uber CEO Says Exec’s Threats To Journalists “Showed A Lack Of Humanity” But Doesn’t Fire Him

• From 2014 to 2016, the company used a software program codenamed “Hell” to illegally monitor the location and movement of Lyft drivers. It was a tactic that opened Uber up to a criminal investigation from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

FBI probes Uber’s use of software to target rival Lyft

• As it expanded internationally, Uber came under fire for lax hiring practices for its drivers. In India, the company was banned in New Delhi, after a convicted sex offender was arrested on suspicion of raping a female passenger.

Uber Banned In New Delhi In Latest Twist Following Alleged Passenger Rape

• Last year, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission opened an investigation into the company for gender discrimination around hiring and salaries for women at the company. Uber’s problems with harassment were famously documented by former employee Susan Fowler in a blog post that helped spur a reckoning for the tech sector.

Uber is being investigated for gender discrimination in a federal probe

• Uber has been forced to pay fines for its inability to keep passenger and driver information private. The company has agreed to 20 years of privacy audits and has paid a fine to settle a case that was opened by the Federal Trade Commission dating back to 2017.

Uber expands privacy settlement with FTC

• While Uber was not found to be criminally liable in the death of an Arizona pedestrian that was struck and killed by a self-driving car from the company’s fleet, it remains the only company with an autonomous vehicle involved in the death of a pedestrian.

Prosecutors find Uber not criminally liable in 2018 Arizona self-driving crash that killed a pedestrian

• Beyond its problems with federal regulators, Uber has also had problems adhering to local laws. In Colorado, Uber was fined nearly $10 million for not adhering to the state’s requirements regarding background checks of its drivers.

Uber fined $8.9M in Colorado for driver screening failures

• Uber was also sued by other companies. Notably, it was involved in a lengthy and messy trade secret dispute with Alphabet’s onetime self-driving car unit, Waymo. That was for picking up former Waymo employee Anthony Levandowski and some know-how that the former Alphabet exec allegedly acquired improperly before heading out the door.

These are the arguments that define the Uber-Waymo lawsuit

• Uber even had dueling lawsuits going between and among its executives and major shareholders. When Travis Kalanick was ousted by the Uber board, the decision reverberated through its boardroom. As part of that battle for control, Benchmark, an early investor in Uber sued the company’s founder and former chief executive,  Travis Kalanick for fraud, breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty.

Benchmark sues former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick

• Uber’s chief people officer, Liane Hornsey was forced to resign following a previously unreported investigation into her alleged systematic dismissals of racial discrimination complaints within Uber.

Uber’s chief people officer is out following racial discrimination investigation

• Lawsuits against the company not only dealt with its treatment of gender and race issues, but also for accessibility problems with the ride-hailing service. The company was sued for allegedly violating Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the California Disabled Persons Act.

Uber gets sued over lack of services available to people with disabilities

• The ride-hailing service also isn’t free from legal woes in international markets. Earlier this year, the company paid around $3 million to settle charges that Uber had violated local laws by operating in the country illegally.

Uber pays $2.6M to settle historical charges it violated Dutch taxi laws

• Finally, the company’s lax driver screening policies have led to multiple reports of assault by drivers of Uber passengers. Uber recently ended the policy of forcing those women to engage in mandatory arbitration proceedings to adjudicate those claims.

Uber ends policy of forced arbitration for individual sexual assault claims

• Not even the drivers who form the core of Uber’s service are happy with the company. On the eve of its public offering, a strike in cities across the country brought their complaints squarely in front of the company’s executive team right before the public offering, which was set to make them millions.

Uber and Lyft drivers are striking ahead of Uber’s IPO

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